“Kudos to the county commission—Kent Carper and the other commissioners. They were [at Charleston Town Center] giving free flu shots, hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes. They were actually walking up and down the mall to give hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes to people, and I just thought that was an extremely good use of my taxpayer money…”

Late fall and winter bring about holiday celebrations and a nasty stomach bug known formally as the norovirus. According to Dr. Michael Brumage, executive director and health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, “Norovirus is highly contagious and can quickly spread. Most people recover from the illness in one to three days. The elderly, very young children, and those with underlying health conditions are at greater risk for hospitalization.”

School students entering school for the 2017-2018 school year are required to have up-to-date vaccinations in most cases before they will be allowed to attend classes. The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department is offering walk-in vaccination clinics at the health department on Aug 7-11, 8:30 am-3:00 pm

The Sterilis device is a safer, more sustainable, proven alternative to the decades-old method of hauling regulated medical waste, like the returned syringes, off-site to be incinerated. According to Dr. Michael Brumage, KCHD health officer, “The best way to treat medical waste is as close to the point of generation as possible.”

“HPV can cause cancer in men and women that can be prevented by a vaccination,” according to Dr. Michael Brumage, health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department and the Putnam County Health Department. Statistics from the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show in 2015 in the 13-17 age range about 40 percent of West Virginia girls and about 27 percent of boys were vaccinated.